19th
Find value… innovate
It’s so easy to get lost in the sea of new technology gadgets, sales folks pitching software that will make all your students the smartest kids in the world and the daily break-fix routine. There is so much blowing around that wants to latch onto our attention… and dollars that sometimes we get lost in that frenzy and forget our basic premise as technology leaders in education; adding value to the experience.
Technology devices and software will NOT make anyone smarter by themselves. Technology devices and software used properly WILL add to the learning experience in a major way. To get to a point to where we can deliver new devices and software we have to be amazing stewards of the extremely finite fiscal resources that we operate with. Just going with what we have always had will not get us to this point.
I have been heads down and inundated with rolling out iPads in a filtered network environment where they will be handed from student to student… not what Apple had in mind when they made these devices. These devices are made to be owned and used by one person but we are trying hard to figure out how to share them. New devices, new ideas, new potential… new headaches, new challenges and less hair for me.
One challenge, but not the only challenge.
My librarians came to me a few months back with a fiscal challenge. They couldn’t afford the software they use to inventory their books and resources. For years we have been using a “big name” company that wants “big name” bucks for their services. For years we just shelled out these astronomical dollars for the software and services. So when the librarians came to me I rolled up my sleeves, closed my door and made the call to the company.
I tried to explain that we had been loyal for years while our budgets kept shrinking to the point we find ourselves in, no one can sacrifice anything more just to pay this company. I told them we were at a crossroads and if they didn’t work with us then we would be forced to look elsewhere. Of course the response was SURE we will work with you and then they started cutting services off what we had and still, we ended up at a fiscal spot that we couldn’t afford.
When you force us to, we explore and innovate.
I called a second company that I had heard a different district was using and the price… well, for almost the exact same service, 90% less expensive. There was one challenge though. The “big-name” company chose to use proprietary technology with their barcodes and scanners and this new, lesser expensive company used industry standard technology. At first the “innovative” company said we would have to change all of our barcodes which did not sit well with the librarians. They would have to recode tens of thousands of resources and there just wasn’t enough time.
Innovation… let’s work together.
Just last week I sent off a single example of each of our barcodes and a scanner to the “innovative” company to see if they can figure out the algorithm so that we don’t have to spend the time changing barcodes. If they figure it out, I will scream their names with praise from the highest mountaintop and they will have a partner/customer for years to come.
My point here is that if you just sit still and do the same thing because you always have, you will end up in a place you can’t manage either fiscally or physically or both. This should be a lesson to not only technology leaders (myself mainly) but also companies who vie for our money. When backed into a corner, innovation always wins and someone will be left in the cold.
